p2pnet.net News:- Reuters was recently forced to shut down a private instant messaging service after an attack from Kelvir, a “social engineering” worm that burrows into systems through a Microsoft IM security hole.

The Kelvir-Re worm is a variant that targeted MSN and Windows Messenger clients, but had previously not bridged to the "tightly controlled network of Reuters messaging,” says IMlogic.

This was the first incident where a virus had targeted a privately controlled user community, it said.

The worm tried to “convince users to download malicious” and once executed, sent messages via Reuters to all of an infected user’s contacts and, "shut down many of the security services on the infected user’s computer,” says IMlogic.

"Reuters offers the messaging service to financial clients along with its data and news services," it says. "There are more than 60,000 active users."

Although Reuters operates a closed network, "meant only for internal users and clients, the worm could have reached the network via -email," Reuters quotes IMLogic ceo Francis deSouzaas saying, adding:

"It just generated a flood of instant messages. So it suddenly slowed down the network for legitimate traffic."

(Thanks, Watch)

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See:-
IMlogic - IMlogic Warns Of Reuters Messaging Worm, April 14, 2005
Reuters - Worm Prompts Temporary Shutdown of Reuters Messaging, April 14, 2005

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 30th, 2005 at 7:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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